Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P10721 (c-kit)
 6,575 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Mastocytosis is a rare disease characterized by a primary pathological increase in mast cells in different tissues, which may present in a variety of clinical patterns. Major advances have been made in recent years in the understanding of the pathogenesis of mastocytosis. This review is aimed at familiarizing dermatologists with these recent findings, and at exploring their possible implications for the diagnosis and treatment of the condition. The heterogeneous clinical presentation of mastocytosis is detailed with respect to the type of skin lesions, age at onset, family history, organ systems involved, associated haematological disorders and prognosis. Recent genetic findings also indicate different pathogenetic forms of mastocytosis, as adult patients and those with associated haematological diseases usually express activating mutations of the stem cell factor receptor c-kit, whereas most cases of childhood-onset and familial mastocytosis seem to lack these mutations. Despite the presence of c-kit mutations, patients with cutaneous lesions generally have a good prognosis, even when there is involvement of other organs. Some patients, particularly those with childhood-onset disease, experience spontaneous remission, mostly by puberty. c-kit mutations do not explain the initial cause of mastocytosis, and their prognostic significance is as yet unclarified, as is the pathogenesis in patients without the mutations. Furthermore, these novel findings have as yet not resulted in a more effective treatment of the cause of the disease, so that counselling, prevention of exposure to mast cell secretory stimuli, and symptomatic treatment remain the mainstays of current patient management.
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PMID:Mastocytosis: recent advances in defining the disease. 1129 25

Mastcytosis is a rare disease characterized by an abnormal increase of mast cells in tissues. The skin is the organ most frequently involved, but mast cells also accumulate in the bone marrow, gastrointestinal tract, lymph nodes, spleen, and liver. Recent studies suggest that activating mutations of c-kit, a protooncogene encoding for the receptor (kit) of stem cell factor, are a possible cause of some forms of mastocytosis. In addition, an increased rate of chromosomal aberrations has been found. Despite significant advances in research on mastocytosis, curative treatment is not yet available. Current management is based on avoidance of mediator-releasing triggers and symptomatic treatment.
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PMID:Mastocytosis: review of clinical and experimental aspects. 1176 3

Malignant lymphoma of the adrenal gland is a rare disease, usually with diffuse large cell morphology and B-cell immunophenotype, and often associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection. In this study, mutations of p53, c-kit, K-ras, and beta-catenin gene were analyzed in 17 cases (13 males and four females with ages ranging from 25 to 84 years) of such lymphomas by polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism followed by direct sequencing. Selected exons in each gene, representing hot spots, were analyzed. All 44 mutations detected were single-nucleotide substitutions and 33 were missense mutations. Nineteen mutations were detected in exon 5 and / or 7 of the p53 gene in nine of 17 cases (52.9%) and 21 in exon 11 and / or 17 of the c-kit gene in 10 of 14 cases (71.4%). Bilateral adrenal lesions in one case who had not received any adjuvant therapy showed different mutational patterns of the p53 and c-kit genes, suggesting different clonal evolution of lymphoma between the left and right sides. Mutation at codon 13 of the K-ras gene was detected in one of 14 cases (7.1%), and in exon 3 of the beta-catenin gene in three of 12 cases (25%). All but one mutation were transition mutations, indicating that some endogenous mutagens act in lymphomagenesis in the adrenal gland. Our results suggest that p53 and c-kit gene mutations might play a role in adrenal lymphomagenesis.
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PMID:Mutations of p53, c-kit, K-ras, and beta-catenin gene in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma of adrenal gland. 1192 8

Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare disease caused by an abnormal mast cell accumulation in various tissues. Two classes of constitutive activating c-kit mutations are found in SM. The most frequent class occurs in the catalytic pocket coding region with substitutions at codon 816 and the other in the intracellular juxtamembrane coding region. Therefore, kinase inhibitors that block mutated c-kit activity might be used as therapeutic agents in SM. Here, we show that STI571 inhibits both wild-type and juxtamembrane mutant c-kit kinase activity, but has no effect on the activity of the D816 V mutant. Accordingly, STI571 selectively decreases the survival of normal mast cell and of mast cell lines either with juxtamembrane c-kit mutations, but not that of tumoral mast cell from patient with SM or of mast cell lines with the D816 V mutation. Therefore, STI571 is not a good candidate to treat SM and specific kinase inhibitors should be designed to inhibit constitutive activating mutations at codon 816.
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PMID:Effect of tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI571 on the kinase activity of wild-type and various mutated c-kit receptors found in mast cell neoplasms. 1256 58

Mastocytosis is a rare disease characterized by an abnormal increase of mast cells in tissues. We report a case of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with t(8;21) and mast cell leukemia (MCL) in which the mastocytosis persisted after standard chemotherapy and allogeneic stem cell transplantation, although the myeloid leukemia achieved molecular complete remission soon after induction chemotherapy. Donor-type mast cells were noted on d31 after transplant. No c-kit mutation was found before or after the transplant. This represents the first reported case in which rapid engraftment of mast cells of donor origin was documented. Thus, the possibility that the mast cell originates from a common myeloid precursor cell may be questioned and a reactive process should be considered in some cases of systemic mastocytosis.
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PMID:Rapid engraftment of mast cells of donor origin in a case of acute myeloid leukemia with mast cell leukemia after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. 1281 87

Mastocytosis is a rare disease characterized by accumulation of mast cells in tissues. To investigate whether an altered regulation of mast cell apoptosis might be involved in the pathogenesis of mastocytosis, expression of the apoptosis-preventing molecules bcl-2 and bcl-xL was studied by immunohistochemistry in skin and bone marrow lesions of mastocytosis patients. In addition, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to investigate levels of bcl-2 and bcl-xL mRNA in cutaneous mastocytosis lesions. Since activating mutations of c-kit are known to be associated with some forms of mastocytosis, human mast cell cultures were also stimulated via c-kit and the expression of bcl-2 and bcl-xL was assessed by immunoblotting. In patients with mastocytosis, the expression of bcl-2 protein but not bcl-xL in cutaneous mast cells was significantly enhanced, compared to healthy controls. Evaluating different subgroups of adult and pediatric mastocytosis patients, all groups were found to express significantly increased levels of bcl-2 protein, and none of the patient groups was found to overexpress bcl-xL, with the exception of solitary mastocytomas that showed a tendency for up-regulated bcl-xL protein. Furthermore, the expression of bcl-2 mRNA was significantly enhanced in cutaneous lesions of adult and pediatric patients, while bcl-xL mRNA levels were only slightly increased in pediatric, but not in adult patients with mastocytosis. In contrast to the skin lesions, bone marrow infiltrates of patients with systemic mastocytosis showed only low or absent immunoreactivity for bcl-2, but marked expression of bcl-xL. In vitro, stimulation of two different mast cell culture systems by activation of c-kit resulted in up-regulation of bcl-2 and also in an increase of bcl-xL, although less pronounced. Thus, overexpression of bcl-2 and bcl-xL leading to prolonged survival of mast cells may contribute to the pathogenesis of mastocytosis. Our findings may help to develop new strategies for the treatment of this disease.
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PMID:Expression of Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL in cutaneous and bone marrow lesions of mastocytosis. 1293 23

In mast cell (MC) disorders (mastocytosis), clinical symptoms are caused by the release of chemical mediators from MCs, the pathologic infiltration of neoplastic MCs in tissues, or both. Cutaneous mastocytosis is a benign disease in which MC infiltration is confined to the skin. In pediatric cases cutaneous mastocytosis might regress spontaneously. Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is more frequently diagnosed in adults and is a persistent (clonal) disease of bone marrow-derived myelomastocytic progenitors. The somatic c-kit mutation D816V is found in the majority of such patients. The natural clinical course in SM is variable. Whereas most patients remain at the indolent stage for many years, some have aggressive SM (ASM) at diagnosis. Other patients have an associated clonal hematologic non-MC lineage disease (AHNMD). MC leukemia (MCL) is a rare disease variant characterized by circulating MCs and fatal disease progression. The diagnoses of ASM, SM-AHNMD, and MCL might be confused with a variety of endocrinologic, vascular, or immunologic disorders. It is therefore of particular importance to be aware of the possibility of an underlying (malignant) MC disease in patients with unexplained vascular instability, unexplained (anaphylactoid) shock, idiopathic flushing, diarrhea, headache, and other symptoms that might be mediator related. An important diagnostic clue in such cases is an increased serum tryptase level. The current review provides an overview of mastocytosis and its subvariants and a practical guide that might help to delineate mastocytosis from unrelated systemic disorders.
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PMID:Diagnosis and classification of mast cell proliferative disorders: delineation from immunologic diseases and non-mast cell hematopoietic neoplasms. 1524 37

In mast cell (MC) disorders (mastocytosis), clinical symptoms are caused by the release of chemical mediators from MCs, the pathologic infiltration of neoplastic MCs in tissues, or both. Cutaneous mastocytosis is a benign disease in which MC infiltration is confined to the skin. In pediatric cases cutaneous mastocytosis might regress spontaneously. Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is more frequently diagnosed in adults and is a persistent (clonal) disease of bone marrow-derived myelomastocytic progenitors. The somatic c-kit mutation D816V is found in the majority of such patients. The natural clinical course in SM is variable. Whereas most patients remain at the indolent stage for many years, some have aggressive SM (ASM) at diagnosis. Other patients have an associated clonal hematologic none MC lineage disease (AHNMD). MC leukemia (MCL) is a rare disease variant characterized by circulating MCs and fatal disease progression. Two important diagnostic clues in SM are an increased serum tryptase level and the presence of abnormal mast cells in the bone marrow. The current review provides an overview of mastocytosis and its subvariants, the new classification of these diseases, a practical guide for the biological diagnosis and advances and future directions in therapy of these pathologies.
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PMID:[Mastocytosis, classification, biological diagnosis and therapy]. 1556 24

Childhood cutaneous melanoma is a rare disease with increasing incidence. It is not clear whether it differs from adult melanoma in etiology and clinical evolution. To genetically characterize childhood melanoma, 21 pediatric patients were studied by germ-line analysis of CDKN2A, CDK4, and MC1R genes. In addition, alterations in CDKN2A, c-Kit, BRAF, and NRAS genes were evaluated at the somatic level by direct gene sequencing, fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis, and immunohistochemistry. As a control group of susceptible patients, we studied patients from 23 melanoma-prone families. At the germ-line level, CDKN2A and MC1R gene variants were detected in 2/21 and 12/21 pediatric patients and in 9/23 and 19/22 in familial patients. At the somatic level, most lesions (9/14) from pediatric patients showed CDKN2A locus homozygous deletions and a null p16 immunophenotype, whereas most lesions (5/8) from familial patients were disomic and immunoreactive. A c-Kit low-polysomy profile seems to parallel CDKN2A homozygous deletions in pediatric melanoma whereas the single activating mutation observed segregates with familial patients. Loss of KIT protein expression was frequent (7/14) in pediatric melanomas, where metastatic cases were prevalent. BRAF(V600E) mutation occurred at a similar rate (approximately 50%) in lesions from pediatric and familial patients, whereas no NRAS mutations were detected.
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PMID:Cutaneous melanoma in childhood and adolescence shows frequent loss of INK4A and gain of KIT. 2071 Dec 7

Mast cells (MCs) typically reside at barrier sites of the body, including the intestinal mucosa, and play a vital role in innate host defence. Activated MCs release a wide variety of bioactive mediators. These include preformed mediators stored in the granules (e.g. histamine and tryptase) and newly synthesised mediators (e.g. prostaglandins, leukotrienes and cytokines). MCs are present in all layers throughout the gastrointestinal (GI) tract and there is a close bi-directional connection between MCs and enteric nerves that is of vital importance in the regulation of GI functions. Some gain-of-function mutations in c-kit, encoding the tyrosine kinase- receptor for stem cell factor, are associated with the rare disease entity, systemic mastocytosis. These patients present symptoms arising from MC mediator release or infiltration. GI manifestations are common in this patient group, mainly abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Endoscopy with biopsies reveals MC infiltration in the mucosa. Other diagnostic tools include bone marrow biopsy and serum tryptase. Treatment is symptomatic with antihistamines or cromoglycate in mild cases, whereas severe cases need cytoreductive therapy that should be managed with expert haematologists. From a day-to-day clinical perspective, the important role of MCs in neuroimmune interaction has been implicated in the intestinal response to stress, in alterations of mucosal and neuromuscular function in irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease, and in the pathogenesis of non-erosive oesophageal reflux disease. Thus, MCs have important regulatory and protective roles in innate defence, in addition to being a potential mediator of mucosal pathophysiology in GI diseases. We need to learn how to balance the response of these volatile cells to be able to benefit from their versatility.
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PMID:Mast cells and mastocytosis. 2020 9


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